BETTER RINO THAN WINO

When the Delaware Republicans finished the balloting
at their convention, the vote was: Establishment 2, Tea
Party 0.

Let it be said that a tea party for this crowd still
means bringing out the good china.

The Establishment re-established itself in the only
two contested runoffs at the convention, which was held
Saturday in Rehoboth Beach, by delivering endorsements
for Mike Castle for senator and Michele Rollins for
congresswoman.

That would be Castle, as in the nine-term congressman
as well as past governor, lieutenant governor and state
legislator. That would be Rollins, as in the Rollins
Wing of the Beebe Medical Center, the Rollins Auditorium
of the Schwartz Center for the Arts, and the Rollins
Center Ballroom at Dover Downs.

Talk about Establishment.

It was so Establishment that Castle's name was
presented to the convention by Pete du Pont, the
ex-governor from the state's most famous family. It was
so Establishment that du Pont noted proudly that his
wife Elise and Castle are both fifth great-grandchildren
of Benjamin Franklin.

Benjamin Franklin! It is impossible to go back any
farther in the Establishment than that without calling
for changing the national anthem to "God Save the
Queen."

All around the country, Establishment candidates are
running for their lives. Not here.

Castle quickly dispatched Christine O'Donnell, a
perennial candidate stuck in an endless loop of Senate
races, a one-person reality show long gone into reruns.
Rollins surged past a double challenge from Glen
Urquhart and Kevin Wade, all three of them running
statewide for the first time.

Candidates must get at least 60 percent of the
delegates' votes to win the endorsement. Castle was at
71 percent on the first ballot, outpolling O'Donnell
239-97. Rollins fell just 19 votes short, collecting 55
percent in the first round with the tally showing
Rollins 186, Urquhart 83 and Wade 72, but it left her
endorsement looking inevitable.

Rollins was in the lead in all seven voting districts
-- Wilmington, Brandywine, Christiana-Mill Creek,
Colonial, Newark, Kent and Sussex -- with the other two
candidates unable to carry even their home base,
Urquhart in Sussex and Wade in Colonial. It is never a
good sign to lose at home.

With Wade forced to drop out after coming in third,
Rollins rolled to 69 percent on the second ballot,
beating Urquhart 231-106. She picked up 15 of the votes
she needed in Colonial.

It made Rollins the first woman in Delaware to be a
credible candidate for the Congress.

"I think she showed some real strength, winning in a
strong first ballot and a strong second ballot. She has
sort of a star quality," Castle said.

Not that these Republican rivalries are necessarily
over. O'Donnell is expected to make Castle go through
the motions of a primary for the Senate nomination.
Urquhart is set on continuing to a primary, but Wade may
get out of the way.

Still, anything anti-Establishment at the Republican
convention was a big fizzle. The party leadership was
concerned enough there could be a disturbance to give
wristbands to all of the participants -- even Pete du
Pont! -- to show they belonged, but nothing happened.

Even the rhetoric went nowhere. One of O'Donnell's
supporters gave a speech ridiculing Castle as the Arlen
Specter of Delaware politics, but it merely set off
sounds of disapproval rippling throughout the delegates.
O'Donnell was left grumbling sourly that Castle was a
"King RINO" -- a moderate whose politics make him a
Republican In Name Only.

The Republicans knew what they were doing and why
they were doing it. Their purpose was expressed plainly
by Bill Lee, the ex-judge who was their nominee for
governor twice. (His family, by the way, has been in
Delaware for 300 years, more good Establishment
credentials.)

"I'm tired of losing," Lee said.

This is a state with an electorate that is 47 percent
Democrat and 23 percent independent. The Republicans
looked at the Tea Party tilt of O'Donnell and Urquhart
to see candidates where Winning Is No Option. Better
RINO than WINO.

The Republicans want to do more than stop a slide
that has virtually handed the state to the Democrats.
They dearly want the bragging rights they would get if
they helped their party pull off a dream sweep proposed
by Ed Gillespie, a former Republican national chairman
who keynoted a dinner Friday before the convention.

Gillespie thrilled them by predicting the Republicans
would knock off Harry Reid, the Senate's Democratic
majority leader, in Nevada and win President Obama's old
Senate seat in Illinois . . .

"And, oh yeh, Vice President Joe Biden's Senate seat
is going to be held by a Republican."

Meanwhile, the Democrats await the Republicans with
Chris Coons, the New Castle County executive, for
senator and John Carney, the former lieutenant governor,
for congressman.